Celebrating ten years, the Rum Renaissance Festival is poised to be bigger and better than ever with a new location on the water in Ft. Lauderdale.

The move from Miami-Dade County to Broward County offers a more convenient centralized location for residents of the eighth-most populated metropolitan area in the nation, currently surpassing six million people.

South Florida is the number one rum market in the world. It’s also the gateway to the Caribbean, Central and South American regions, where more than 90% of the rum available in the United States is produced.

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From one of the oldest rum producers in the world comes one of the finest rare aged rums ever bottled, Mount Gay 1703 Master Select.

Derived from double copper pot and single column still distillates, this spirit is a blend of 10 to 30 year old aged rums. 1703 Master Select is a deliciously complex and concentrated nectar reflecting the life-long mastery of blender Allen Smith. Continue reading

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The annual celebration of cane spirits and global gathering of rum experts in South Florida — Miami Rum Fest and Trade Expo — returns to the DoubleTree Miami Airport Hotel and Convention Center for the weekend of April 22-23, 2017 from 1 to 6pm. Continue reading

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The ShowRum Tasting Competition awards were announced as the annual ShowRum Italian Rum Festival in Rome concluded on Monday, September 29, 2015.

The 2015 ShowRum Italian Rum Festival held in Rome included the ShowRum Tasting Competition organized by Leonardo Pinto.

With two days of rum tasting for the public, and a third day just for the trade, this rum themed event drew large crowds of rum enthusiasts and spirit professionals. More than 130 rums were showcased in 30 exhibits, with a host of master classes and special events offered throughout the weekend.

The winners of the international ShowRum Tasting Competition, judged by a panel of rum experts from around the globe, have just been announced.

This was the fifth annual event for show organizers Leonardo Pinto and Alessandra Penteriani. “We’re very happy with the response from our friends that love rum, want to learn more about rum and want to experience the best rums in the world,” said Leonardo.

Among the brands exhibiting were Bacardi of Puerto Rico, Havana Club of Cuba, Abuelo of Panama, Angostura of Trinidad, Appleton of Jamaica, Arcane of Mauritius, Beach House Spiced Rum, Brugal of Dominican Republic, Damoiseau of Guadeloupe, Debonaire of Dominican Republic, Dictador of Colombia, Dillon of Martinique, Don Papa of the Philippines, Diplomatico of Venezuela, Doorly’s of Barbados, El Dorado of Guyana, Flor de Caña of Nicaragua, Hampden Estate and J Wray of Jamaica, La Mauny of Martinique, Rum Malecon of Panama, Ron Malteco of Guatemala, Nine Leaves of Japan, Ocumare of Venezuela, Rons de Venezuela, Rum Fire of Jamaica, Sagatiba of Brazil, Santa Teresa of Venezuela, Trois Riveres of Martinique, Veroes of Venezuela and Wray & Nephew of Jamaica.

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On Tuesday, May 19, the Brugal brand of rum, an iconic spirit of the Dominican Republic, announced Brugal wins three Gold Medals from the RumXP International Tasting Competition held at the annual Miami Rum Renaissance Festival.

Brugal rum, the leading brand from the Dominican Republic, was awarded three new gold medals from the RumXP competition held at the recent Miami Rum Renaissance Festival.

RumXP Gold Awards went to Brugal White Extra Dry in the white rum category, to Brugal Añejo in the gold rum category and to Brugal 1888 in the premium aged rum category. Brugal XV was also awarded a bronze medal from the Consumer Rum Jury at the same time.

The annual RumXP Tasting Competition forms part of the Rum Renaissance festival and is among the most prestigious events of its type in the world, bringing together an experienced panel of 12 rum judges who conducted blind taste tests to evaluate the finest cane spirits from every region, every style and every category of the rum world.

“This year’s RumXP awards continue to add prestigious accolades for our other expressions, which are more readily accessible to a larger consumer base. Brugal has produced a family of high quality rums distilled, aged and bottled in the Dominican Republic since 1888. We are very excited to receive these RumXP acknowledgments and honoured to garner this respect from the rum community.”

With a current ad campaign promoting “Respeto!” Brugal certainly is gaining the respect of rum professionals and consumer worldwide. The company has been making fine rums in the Dominican Republic for more than 135 years. In 1920, the company’s first warehouses were built for the ageing of rum in oak barrels.

The company sells more than 80% of all rum in the Dominican Republic, is a leading brand in the Caribbean region and ranks one of the top selling rum brands in the United States. The Edrington Group took a majority stake in the brand in February, 2008.

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It has been another banner year for Plantation Rums, based in Cognac, France. The company announced today that their products were awarded four Gold and four Best In Category awards from the International Rum Expert Panel judges at the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival.

Master Blender Alexandre Gabriel announced his Plantation Rum expressions recently won the most RumXP awards at the international tasting competition held at the Miami Rum Festival.

Consumer Rum Jury Impressed

The Plantation 20th Anniversary XO aged rum also won a Gold award from the new Consumer Rum Jury in their premiere tasting competition, comprised of 20 well qualified rum enthusiast consumers, collectors and experienced rum travelers, offering the perspective of the active and engaged rum buyer in their evaluations.

Plantation Rums have a unique identity

This unique brand of rums is produced in France, headed by Alexandre Gabriel, Proprietor of Maison Ferrand and Master Blender for Plantation Rum. For the past two decades, Alexandre has been traveling to the Caribbean’s best distilleries to acquire rums that he believes will benefit from further aging in Cognac barrels at his facility in France.

Each rum in the Plantation Rum portfolio is made according to its country’s traditional technique and expresses the rum characteristics and flavor of its country of origin. While the rums are born in the traditional fashion, produced in rum distilleries and aged in barrels in the tropical sun, they undergo a unique aging process not used by any other rum producer in the industry — the rums are plucked from their country of origin at just the right moment and brought to the Ferrand estate in France where they are refined for several more months in small French oak Ferrand barrels. These special Plantation Rums that make up the portfolio are either blends or vintages and come from Barbados, Guadeloupe, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and Trinidad.

Some of these special vintage bottles are considered by rum enthusiasts around the world to be highly collectable items.

“It’s such an honor that our rums would be considered among the very best in the world by this esteemed group of RumXP judges,” said Alexandre Gabriel. “The Plantation brand is enjoying steady growth in North America thanks to our team of seasoned professionals, a growing appreciation of our expanding range of unique aged rums and this type of consistent recognition by leading rum experts of the world.”

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Louisiana Spirits of Lacassine, Louisiana recently debuted their new Bayou Select Limited Edition Barrel Reserve at the Miami Rum Festival to great acclaim, earning a gold award from the Consumer Rum Jury. This new addition to their award-winning offerings is the first aged rum expression bottled under the Bayou brand.

We tasted batch 1501, the first bottling (2015). The golden amber color of Bayou Select limited edition reserve is enticing. With initial aromas of buttery praline, rustic cinnamon and creamy vanilla, the nose leads to crisp apple over bread pudding with nuts, buttery croissant and toasted oak. First on the palate is cinnamon sugar and butter, building warmth in mid-palate as charred wood, maple and dark fruit notes develop before a warm finish with long lingering notes of dark wood.

Bayou Select Rum is another fine expression of these unique Louisiana sugarcane rums born from the rich soils of the mighty Mississippi river delta. Fermented with cane yeast, distilled in American copper pot stills and rested in American oak in the Louisiana heat, this flavorful dark rum is sure to be a favorite among those that appreciate sweet, delicious rums.

Each bottle is signed and numbered by the distiller and blender. The 750ml bottle of Bayou Limited Edition Select Barrel Reserve aged rum retails for $33.99.

This Bayou Select Limited Edition Select Barrel Reserve is handmade in the largest privately-owned rum distillery in the USA, utilizing traditional methods with state-of-the-art technology for all four steps: fermentation, distillation, maturation, and bottling.

Their 18,000 square foot distilling facility in Lacassine, Louisiana features a gallery celebrating the state’s historic role as a sugar cane producer and rum distiller, a 109 year-old restored farmhouse and modern production facilities located on 22 naturally-set acres, complete with ponds, cypress trees and a sugar cane field. The beautiful facility offers distillery tours, rum tasting bar and a first-class gift shop shop experience for those who visit the home of Bayou Rum.

Tim Litel, Skip Cortese and Trey Litel founded Louisiana Spirits in 2011. The Litel brothers are from the Lake Charles area and teamed with Skip Cortese, of Baton Rouge, for the venture. Tim and Skip have worked together for more than a dozen years to build and sell environmental service companies. Tim brings his environmental expertise with specialties in operations, compliance and general management. Skip is a successful entrepreneur with an environmental engineering background and specializes in construction and startup management. Trey brings over 25 years of sales and marketing expertise, with over 10 years in the distilled spirits and beverages industries.